The Israeli Economy, 1985?1998: From Government Intervention to Market Economics

From 1973 to 1985, the Israeli economy suffered a deep crisis: the growth rate declined, foreign debt increased, and inflation soared to annual rates of a few hundred percent. This book analyzes the structural reforms initiated between 1985 and 1998 thattransformed the Israeli economy from one of heavy government intervention to a market-oriented, open economy. The reforms introduced fiscal discipline, increased central bank independence, and reduced government intervention in capital, labor, and financial markets. Also, competition was fostered in monopoly-controlled markets. The results of these reforms include, among others: a decline from 77 percent to 55 percent in the government expenditure portion of the gross domestic product, a decline from 65 percent of credit volume to 5 percent in government involvement in directing credit, and almost complete elimination of the tight control of the foreign-exchange market. These reforms, together with the mass migration into Israel from...